Some more on the Iḥqāqīya who follow Šayḫ Aḥmad

The book by the former head of the community Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl on the two centuries of the scholarly and religious service provided by his family is a valuable record of how the family moved from Tabrīz to Karbalā and then to al-Aḥsāʾ and Kuwait and the centres, mosques and ḥawzāt they established. At his death, his son Mīrzā ʿAbdullāh succeeded but was not declared the full head of the community but now certainly seems to be. He is given titles such as ‘al-ḥakīm al-ilāhī’, ‘rūḥ al-šarīʿa’ and even the title of a marǧaʿ (which they now use for him) ‘āyatullāh al-ʿuẓmā’. His visits to Kuwait are major events most recently a few months ago. The difficulty is to figure out how large the community is. It seems fairly small confined to parts of al-Šarq and Bneid al-Gār in Kuwait, some pockets in the eastern province in al-Aḥsāʾ and al-Hufūf and a very small community of students in al-Sayyida Zaynab in the southern suburbs of Damascus where they have a Muʾassasat al-fikr al-awḥad (although most of the books are published in Beirut). The works of their scholars are published in the following places:

· Kuwait: Maktabat al-ʿAḏrāʾ is a wonderful little Šayḫī bookshop in Bneid al-Gār run by devotees originally from Iran (the whole area is very much a Šīʿī Iranian area) and they publish many of the works at their press – simple and fairly cheap paperbacks (at least for Kuwaiti standards where 1-2KD is hardly anything for a paperback). Their risāla ʿamalīya is available there – one in two thick volumes with a long introduction on doctrine and belief by Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl, and another more recent entitled Aḥkām al-šarīʿa by Šayḫ Muḥammad al-Ǧadī.

· Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq in al-Šarq (the Imam there is Šayḫ ʿAbdullāh al-Mazīdī) is their main centre with the Ḥusaynīya Ǧaʿfarīya next door which act jointly as headquarters for publishing, dissemination and services – there are two laǧna-s for publication – one for the works of Šayḫ Aḥmad and the tradition and another for the works of Sayyid Kāẓim al-Raštī. Rather odd that they prefer to published the many risāla-s separately and do not publish the complete Ǧawāmiʿ al-kalim as the Kirmānī branch has.

· Beirut: the Damascus based Muʾassasat al-fikr al-awḥad publishes usually through one of the major Šīʿī presses like al-Maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ; the Kuwaiti laǧna-s also use Muʾassasat al-balāġ

Some more on the Iḥqāqīya who follow Šayḫ Aḥmad

The book by the former head of the community Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl on the two centuries of the scholarly and religious service provided by his family is a valuable record of how the family moved from Tabrīz to Karbalā and then to al-Aḥsāʾ and Kuwait and the centres, mosques and ḥawzāt they established. At his death, his son Mīrzā ʿAbdullāh succeeded but was not declared the full head of the community but now certainly seems to be. He is given titles such as ‘al-ḥakīm al-ilāhī’, ‘rūḥ al-šarīʿa’ and even the title of a marǧaʿ (which they now use for him) ‘āyatullāh al-ʿuẓmā’. His visits to Kuwait are major events most recently a few months ago. The difficulty is to figure out how large the community is. It seems fairly small confined to parts of al-Šarq and Bneid al-Gār in Kuwait, some pockets in the eastern province in al-Aḥsāʾ and al-Hufūf and a very small community of students in al-Sayyida Zaynab in the southern suburbs of Damascus where they have a Muʾassasat al-fikr al-awḥad (although most of the books are published in Beirut). The works of their scholars are published in the following places:
• Kuwait: Maktabat al-ʿAḏrāʾ is a wonderful little Šayḫī bookshop in Bneid al-Gār run by devotees originally from Iran (the whole area is very much a Šīʿī Iranian area) and they publish many of the works at their press – simple and fairly cheap paperbacks (at least for Kuwaiti standards where 1-2KD is hardly anything for a paperback). Their risāla ʿamalīya is available there – one in two thick volumes with a long introduction on doctrine and belief by Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl, and another more recent entitled Aḥkām al-šarīʿa by Šayḫ Muḥammad al-Ǧadī.
• Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq in al-Šarq (the Imam there is Šayḫ ʿAbdullāh al-Mazīdī) is their main centre with the Ḥusaynīya Ǧaʿfarīya next door which act jointly as headquarters for publishing, dissemination and services – there are two laǧna-s for publication – one for the works of Šayḫ Aḥmad and the tradition and another for the works of Sayyid Kāẓim al-Raštī. Rather odd that they prefer to published the many risāla-s separately and do not publish the complete Ǧawāmiʿ al-kalim as the Kirmānī branch has.
• Beirut: the Damascus based Muʾassasat al-fikr al-awḥad publishes usually through one of the major Šīʿī presses like al-Maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ; the Kuwaiti laǧna-s also use Muʾassasat al-balāġ

Some Notes on the Iḥqāqī/Tabrīzī branch of the followers of Šayḫ Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1826)

In Kuwait at the moment following up some research on this branch of what is known as the Šayḫīya school of Twelver Šiʿi theology (although as my main interlocutor Šayḫ ʿAlī al-Jadī who is the imam at Ǧāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥḥāf insisted this is a pejorative term that should not be used and is like referring to the Šiʿa as the rawāfiḍ - best to use terms that are self-referential such as followers of the madrasat al-Šayḫ al-awḥad and its like). This is small community locally (and regionally) known as the Ḥasāwīya because of their origins in the region of al-Aḥsāʾ in the eastern province. Since the death of Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl al-Iḥqāqī al-Ḥāʾirī, there is no designated head or marǧaʿ (his son Mīrzā ʿAbdullāh residing in Tehran is seen as too young without relevant iǧāzāt – hence his wearing of the gatra and not the ʿamāma). There is no ḥawza in the centre of Kuwait – the old Ḥawzat al-nūrayn al-nīrayn Amīr al-Muʾminīn wa Fāṭimat al-Zahrāʾ founded by Mīrzā Ḥasan has basically been defunct since the death of Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl. They do, however, have two ḥawzas in Aḥsāʾ, one entitled Ḥawzat al-Imām al-Riḍā run by Šayḫ al-Jāsim.
Not wishing to replicate the excellent work of Stephen Lambden, I reproduce a selected bibliography of relevant sources for this school below, which focus on the Iḥqāqī and constitute the main sources for the current research project.

Primary Texts

I: Šayḫ Aḥmad b. Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1241/1826)

Dīwān al-Šayḫ al-Awḥad, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāġ, 2004

*Kitāb al-fawāʾid – Šarḥ al-fawāʾid, Kuwait, n.d., n.p., offset of the lithograph

Ǧawāmiʿ al-kalim, 6 parts in 2 vols., Tabriz: Muḥammad Taqī Naḫǧavānī, 1273/1856

*Ḥayāt an-nafs (wa-uṣūl al-ʿaqāʾid li-l-Sayyid al-Raštī), ed. Mīrzā ʿAlī al-Ḥāʾirī, Kuwait: n.p.,

n.d.

[many other printings – have one other by Šayḫ ʿAlī al-Jadī; also *Šarḥ ḥayāt al-nafs of Šayḫ ʿAbd al-Ǧalīl ʿAlī al-Amīr (Iḥqāqī in Saudi), Damascus: Maktabat Imām Ǧaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, 1416 H with blessings of ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī]

*Kaškūl al-Aḥsāʾī, 2 parts in 1 vol, Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ, 2005

*Kayfīyat sulūk ilā Allāh, ed. Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī, Kuwait: Maktabat al-Ṣāliḥīn, Jāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, n.d.

*Rasāʾil al-ḥikma, Beirut: al-Dār al-ʿālamīya, 1993

*al-Raǧʿa, eds. Šayḫ Muǧtabā al-Samāʿīl & Šayḫ Rāḍī al-Aḥsāʾī, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-fikr

al-awḥad, 1427 H/2006

Šams ḥaǧar, ed. Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Bū-Shafīʿ, Beirut/Kuwait: Laǧnat iḥyāʾ turāṯ

al-Šayḫ al-Awḥad, 2003

*Šarh kitāb al-ḥikma al-ʿaršīya, ed. Ṣālib Muḥammad al-Dabbāb, Beirut: Muʾassasat

al-Balāġ/Muʾassasat Šams haǧar, 2007

Šarḥ al-mašāʿir, Kirman: Maṭbaʿat al-saʿāda, 1408 ???; 2 vols., Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāġ,

2007

*Šarḥ al-ziyāra al-ǧāmiʿa, 4 vols., Beirut: Dār al-Mufīd, 2003

*Risālat al-taǧwīd, ed. Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī, (Kuwait?: Laǧnat al-sayd al-amǧad

li-iḥyāʾ turāṯ madrasat al-Šayḫ al-Awḥad, n.d.

II: Sayyid Kāẓim b. Qāsim al-Raštī (d. 1259/1843)

*Asrār al-ʿibādāt, Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1422/2001

Asrār al-šahāda: sirr al-ḥaqīqa fī waqʿat al-ṭafūf, Damascus/Sayyida Zaynab: Madrasat Imām

al-Awḥad, 1421/2000

Dalīl al-mutaḥayyirīn, Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1423/2002

*Kašf al-ḥaqq fī masāʾil al-miʿrāǧ, ed. Amīr ʿAskarī, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāġ, 2000

*Risālat al-sulūk fī-l-aḫlāq wa-l-aʿmāl, ed. Vaḥīd Bihmardī, Beirut: Ergon Verlag, 2004

Šarḥ duʿāʾ al-simāt wa šarḥ ḥadīṯ al-qadr, Beirut: Muʾassasat fikr al-awḥad, 1423/2002

*Šarḥ ḥadīṯ ʿImrān al-Ṣābiʾ, ed. Mīrzā ʿAbdullāh Ḥāʾirī Iḥqāqī, Kuwait: Maktabat al-ʿAdhrāʾ,

1426/2005

Šarḥ al-ḫuṭba al-tuṭunǧiya, 3 vols., Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1421/2001

*al-Sulūk ilā Allāh, ed. Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī, Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 2000

Tafsīr āyat al-kursī, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-ʿUmrān, 3 vols., Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa

al-bayḍāʾ, n.d.

III: Šayḫ ʿAlī-Naqī b. Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1246/1831)

Minhāǧ al-sālikīn, 3 vols., Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1419/1998

IV: Mīrzā Ḥāsan Gawhar Tabrīzī (d. 1266/1849)

Kitāb al-maḫāzīn wa-l-lamaʿāt wa-l-barāhīn al-sātiʿāt, ed. ʿAbd al-Ǧalīl ʿAlī al-Amīr,

Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Balāġ/Muʾassasat Šams haǧr, 2006

Šarḥ ḥayāt al-arwāḥ, ed. Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī, Kuwait: Maktabat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq,

2002

V: Šayḫ Muḥammad Bū-Ḫamsīn al-Aḥsāʾī (d. 1316/

Mafātīḥ al-anwār fī bayān maʿrifat maṣābīḥ al-asrār, 2 vols., ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-ʿUmrān,

Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ,vn.d.

*al-Nūr al-muḍī maʿrufat al-kanz al-maḫfī, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-ʿUmrān, Beirut: Dār

al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ, 2007

Al-Risāla al-Ḫurāsānīya šarḥ man ʿarafa nafsahu faqad ʿarafa rabbahu, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim

al-ʿUmrān, Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ, n.d.

VI: Mīrzā Mūsā Uskūʾī al-Ḥāʾirī

Iḥqāq al-ḥaqq

VII: Mīrzā Muḥammad Bāqir Uskūʾī al-Ḥāʾirī

*Al-Risāla al-badaʾīya, ed. ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-ʿUmrān/Mīrza ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī, Beirut:

Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ/Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 2000

VIII: Mīrzā Ḥasan Iḥqāqī al-Ḥāʾirī

*Risāla insānīya, ed./annotated Šayḫ Ḥasan Šams Kaylānī, Kuwait: Maktabat al-Imām

al-Ṣādiq al-ʿāmma, 1993

*al-Tadayyun bayn al-sāʾil wa-l-muǧīb. 4 vols., Beirut/Kuwait: Maktabat al-Imām al-Ṣadiq

al-ʿāmma, 1992

IX: Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Rasūl Iḥqāqī al-Ḥāʾirī (d.

*Qarnān min al-iǧtihād wa-l-marǧaʿīya, Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1996

*al-Taḥqīq fī madrasat al-awḥad, Kuwait: Ǧāmiʿ al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 2003

*al-Walāya: baḥṯ ḥawl al-walāya min waḥī al-Qurʾān, ed. ʿAlī al-ʿAsaylī al-ʿĀmilī,

Beirut/Kuwait: Maktabat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq al-ʿāmma, 1999

Studies/History

Ḥasan Fayḍān, Madḫal ilā falsafat al-Šayḫ Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī, Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ,

2003

Muḥammad Zakī Ibrāhīm, al-Madrasa al-Šayḫīya, Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ, 2004

Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Hādī Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, Aʿlām madrasat al-šayḫ al-awḥad fī-l-qarn al-ṯāliṯ-

ʿašar al-hiǧrī, Beirut: Dār al-maḥaǧǧa al-bayḍāʾ, 2006

*Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥasan Āl Ṭāliqānī, Al-Šayḫīya: našaʾtuhā wa taṭawwuruhā wa maṣādir

dirāsātihā, Naǧaf: Maktabat al-maʿārif, 2007

Another library goes online - Majlis

Amazing that libraries are realising issues over access. The library of the Majlis in Tehran has made its excellent collection of 35,000 mss available as pdfs online. The link is here.

Some Recent Titles on Mullā Ṣadrā

Of course, visiting Iran provides opportunities to see what’s recently been published (although I’m lucky to receive books all the time from generous friends). A few more titles have been published by the Sadra Islamic Philosophy Research Institute (SIPRIn) including a new edition of Risāla ittiḥād al-ʿāqil wa-l-maʿqūl edited by Biyūk ʿAlīzāda. The edition itself is prefaced with practically 200 pages of discussion. No doubt it should be used alongside Ibrahim Kalin’s new translation which is embedded in his recent book on Mullā Ṣadrā’s epistemology published by OUP.

Since I am currently writing a series of pieces on Mullā Ṣadrā’s noetics including the issue of eschatology and the final destination of the human, I finally got hold of the famous explanation and commentary by the late (and greatly missed) Sayyid Jalālodīn Āshtiyānī (d. 2006). All of Āshtiyānī’s works on Mullā Ṣadrā as well as his various editions of texts have been reprinted by the press of the Ḥawzeh in Qum since the late 1990s (Daftar-i tablīghāt – now known as Bustān-i kitāb). The importance of the Sharḥ bar Zād al-musāfir is all the more because the actual text of Mullā Ṣadrā (to my knowledge) has yet to be published in the critical edition – and Āshtiyānī is always worth reading. He begins by replicating the original text – around eight pages of Arabic. This text takes up the issue of corporeal resurrection in a brief manner discussing twelve principles required to understand the issue – and as such mirrors the final volume of al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya where Mullā Ṣadrā mentions eleven principles needed to understand corporeal resurrection and abandon metempsychosis. This is then followed by over 500 pages of Āshtiyānī’s commentary that given his style and interests constitutes a full history of the ḥikmat tradition on this issue. Mullā Ṣadrā’s position is, of course, controversial and has often been criticised and condemned, not least by the school of uṣūlīs hostile to philosophy known as the maktab-i tafkīk. Therefore, I also acquired a new defence of Mullā Ṣadrā published by Bustān-i kitāb. Murtażā Pūʾīyān’s Maʿād-i jismānī dar ḥikmat-i mutaʿāliya published for the first time in 2009 addresses the criticisms by first showing that Mullā Ṣadrā’s position is both defensible rationally and scripturally, and then criticising the refutations or modification proposed by Mullā Ismāʿīl Khājūʾī (18^th C), Mullā Muḥammad Taqī Āmulī (a famed teacher of Sabzavārī’s Sharḥ al-manẓūma), Muṭahharī, ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, and the maktab-i tafkīk especially Mullā Mahdī Iṣfahānī, Muḥammad Riżā Ḥakīmī, and Shaykh Mujtabā Qazwīnī.

Other acquisitions included:

· Hastī va chīstī dar maktab-i Mullā Ṣadrā on the central issue of the relationship between existence and essence in contingents written by Ghulām-Riżā Fayyāżī, a well-known ḥawzeh teacher and published by Pazhūhishgāh-i ḥawzeh va dānishgāh last year in 2009.

· Zamān dar falsafa-yi Ṣadr al-mutaʾallihīn va Saint Augustine by Mahdī Munfarid is also published in the current year by the ḥawzeh and tackles a central issue of the reality of time and its relationship to motion within a comparative context that is so popular in Iran. The comparison with Augustine is quite interesting and appropriate.

· Mabānī, uṣūl va ravish-i tafsīrī-yi Mullā Ṣadrā by Majīd Falāḥpūr is a recent contribution to the question of his hermeneutics and should be read alongside two other recent works published by SIPRIn.

· Khayāl az naẓar-i Ibn Sīnā va Ṣadr al-mutaʾallihīn by Zohreh Burqeʿī tackles a central issue in noetics relating to the imagination – which for Ibn Sīnā is the key internal sense and the one most heightened in prophets, and for Mullā Ṣadrā the one which is the seat of the creative power of the soul whence it reproduces the bodies of the afterlife. This is another offering from the ḥawzeh.

· Natāʾij-i kalāmī-yi ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāʾī, also published by the ḥawzeh and written by Muḥammad Amīn Ṣādiqī addresses a further issue of the implications of philosophy for theology – I noticed other more basic titles in this vein published by the many pazhūhishgāhs now in Qum.

Cusanuswerk Conference

Spent the weekend in the lovely town of Mainz near Frankfurt for the annual Cusanuswerk conference on philosophy. The Cusanuswerk is a scholarship and mentoring scheme run by the Catholic church in Germany. It's interesting that they picked the theme of Arabic/Islamic philosophy (that old debate returned again). A number of experts were invited to give talks in German and English from the Graeco-Arabic Neoplatonica and Abu Bakr al-Razi through to Mulla Sadra (no prizes for guessing who gave that talk). It was a great experience giving a paper to a collection of experts as well as enthusiastic and bright philosophy students many of whom knew nothing about the Arabic tradition or about Islam. Along the way Prof Ulrich Rudolph from Zurich gave a couple of public talks on Arabic Islamic thought as well as the history of the academic encounter with the study of philosophy in the Muslim world. Those giving papers included Prof Peter Adamson on Razi and how we can not the heretic we all think he was, Prof Heidrun Eichner (Tubingen) on philosophy and theology in post-Avicennan Islamic world engaging with the critical issue of what Islamic theology is given the current German debate on this new centre of Islamic Studies/theology, myself on Mulla Sadra's monistic noetics, Prof Rahim Acar (Marmara) on Avicenna and Aquinas on creation (drawing on his published PhD), Dr Rotraud Hansberger (King's, Cambridge) on the Arabic Parva Naturalia, and others. In the evaluation, we commented on the absence of philosophy of language and ethics and some students were disappointed with the absence of Averroes (although their reasoning was rather old-fashioned and enlightenment oriented as if only Aristotelianism was the way back and forward for dialogue).
One can of course only dream at this stage of Muslim communities in Europe getting their act together to support the education and intellectual development of their own through schemes such as this and also run such wonderful conferences of real debate and exchange.

WPD - First Day, First Panel

The Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo had just flown in from Brazil - and flew out almost immediately not spending a day there. I missed much of his talk but what I did catch struck me as being standard for him - a denial of God but affirmation of belief and religion, a denial of objective truth and indeed of the problem within philosophy to seek universals while insisting upon a concept of truth as intersubjective negotiation. This latter makes little sense to me and I cannot quite locate it. While there are plenty of theories of truth out there (wonderfully summed up in Wolfgang Kunne's book) as well as a wide ranging epistemological belief in relative truth, I do not see how truth as inter-subjective negotiation works. I much prefer (as I mentioned before) traditionalist accounts of truth or even tradition-based ones such as MacIntyre's.

Interestingly, the celebrity Ghulam-Hossein Ibrahimi Dinani who has a regular philosophy programme and is at Tehran University took a different view - philosophy as open inquiry and questioning but which assumes a singular truth with 'many faces'. His basic position that humanity is present and alienated in language (using a verse of the poet Bedil) was well taken - and generally his performance reminded me of his excellent recent book on Nasir al-Din Tusi as 'filsuf-e guftagu' (philosophy of dialogue). Philosophy concerns dialoging and practices of discourse that are universal and global and should not be excessively parochialised as Greek, Islamic, Iranian and so forth. This commensurability is precisely what makes philosophy possible and why dialogue at its heart is most effective when it is conducted by philosophers (a probably self-serving suggestion which many in the audience enthusiastically received). To the objection that this seems unrelated to Islamic concerns, he was careful to note that philosophy is tafakkur, tadabbur and ta'aqqul and these are basic epistemological and moral imperatives in the Quran. He remains a eudaimonist at heart - since flourishing happiness arrived through understanding reality and harmonising inter-subjective relations is critical to philosophy, inquiry should keep this in mind. Change is not just about exegesis but fundamental transformation. As such this was a paper clearly geared to a strong ethical role for philosophy in contemporary societies and in Iran critical, citing along the way that change was central to philosophising, quoting Imam 'Ali on the basic point that if any two days of one are the same then one is dead - stable and still and not moving. A wonderful potential call for political change?